'Gilmore' producers to miss 6th season

April 25, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- The popular WB series "Gilmore Girls" will have to continue without the husband-and-wife team that has been its creative force since the beginning. Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino said Thursday they will leave as executive producers following the end of this season, its sixth. The show's production company said "Gilmore Girls" will continue next season with Dave Rosenthal, who has been a writer-producer there, running things. The WB is closing up shop this fall, but "Gilmore Girls" is expected to move to the new CW network, which is a combination of the current WB and UPN networks. "Despite our best efforts to return and ensure the future of 'Gilmore Girls' for years to come, we were unable to reach an agreement with the studio and are therefore leaving when our contracts expire at the end of the season," the Palladinos said in a statement. With stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel under contract for one more season, next year is widely considered to be the show's last one. Graham said in an interview with The Associated Press in January that she would like to leave at the end of next season. Amy Palladino told the AP then that she believed the show could go on for longer than one year. She and her husband had said then that they were thinking of leaving and were already preparing the show to run without them. Their departure was first reported on TVGuide.com.